At nearly two she still too young to be able to put her shoes on by herself, so she’s constantly bringing me one shoe, lifting up her foot and “eh”ing until I put it on. Of course, she has no problems with taking said shoes off.

Erin has always liked to do things in her own order. In the beginning this was a course of concern for us as she was rarely doing the things she should have been for her age. Now though, we just go with the flow.

I originally bought footpath chalk a few months ago, hoping that she’d get the hang of the big chunky chalks faster then she had the pencils and crayons, but no such luck. Her favorite thing to do was to eat them.

Fast forward to this week. I bought the chunky chalk out again and we went outside once the sun had passed over and the afternoon had cooled. Lo and behold we have drawing!

As you can see she’s quite advanced, not only can she stab at the cement with her chalk, but she can also write words!

I’m off today to get her first drawing printed and framed!

I was a bit skeptical about the intensive feeding therapy when we finally got to the top of the waiting list. We’d been doing feeding therapy for months with limited improvement, what was going to happen over the course of the week that was going to make a difference? Even now I’m still not sure what we did differently but she’s eating and eating more at each meal than she did in a whole day previously!

We’re both exhausted and though she’s still trying to work out ways of getting out of eating she’s still doing well. Despite a tantrum and trying to climb out of her high chair this morning at breakfast she still ate 150 grams (5oz) of yogurt. Her therapists say this is normal but that she’ll eventually come round and meal times wont be so time consuming. Hell, we may even be able to eat out like normal people!

By significantly I mean that in the past two days all she has taken orally is two potato chips and a nibble of some toast. She’s just not hungry, she’s even flat out refusing her bottles.

At first I thought this was a result of her tube being changed–we always see a decrease in her eating habits after a tube change–but now I’m starting to wonder if it’s more likely to be due to her new recipe which has significantly more calories. It’s common for kids with adjusted diets to experience this so I think we need to talk to the dietitian and adjust her feeds again.

Yesterday while we were out meeting with friends we decided to hang the expense and lashed out to buy a new cup. This one’s a Tommee Tippee Nûby with a soft, replaceable top. She seemed to take to it, though she doesn’t understand about tilting her head back (hence the lay back pram position). She also enjoyed this new cups hands free option.

This winter has been a fairly mild one for us, particularly compared to what I was expecting. A part from the hospital induced RSV Erin had at the beginning of the season she’s been a picture of health. Not even a sniffle. Of course, as I’m writing this I have my fingers crossed that I haven’t just jinxed us.

She’s learned a fair few things in the past few months, everyone is very pleased with her progress–even the hospitals physio, which I didn’t think was possible. She’s right on target for most things and advanced in others.

Physically, she’s cruising the furniture and even standing unsupported for a few seconds. Usually once she realizes that no one’s holding on to her she sits down, but we’re hoping that any day now she’ll be ready to take her first steps! It’s a very exciting time! Speaking of mobility, she’s all but given up on the frog hop/commando crawl method in preference for a proper, hands and knees crawl. Of course this newly learned ability has given her extra speed.

In the past few months she’s become increasingly social. Talking and smiling even when we’re in public. She’s saying about 15 words including dad, mama, pup, Dora (the explorer), Backpack, Map and most recently gone, when she’s thrown her toys away and quick!

I can’t believe she’s almost a year and a half old!

I’m pleased to say that she’s not entirely rejecting the spoon like I had feared. She’s not taking huge amounts, only about 55g/2oz per serve, but it’s something and she’s not fighting! I’d been expecting her to be even more orally defensive then she already was but, for the moment at least, she’s not doing too badly.

For the last number of months it has become incredibly difficult to get Erin to eat. She’s become increasingly resistant to being spoon fed and, at times, would only eat if she was to feed herself. Unfortunately at her age and with her skill level self feeding is not only messy (which I can cope with) but awfully inefficient as it takes her over 45 minutes to eat a quarter of a jar. She just wasn’t getting enough nutrients or calories.

At our three monthly appointment with Erin’s paediatrician we discovered that Erin had gained the princely sum of 30 grams since her last check up. Afterwards we were referred to a dietitian and a speech pathologist in the hopes of being able to encourage her to eat more. Unfortunately we soon discovered that she was beginning to loose weight–80 grams in one week. Quite a feat.

Arrangements were made and Erin was admitted to hospital to have a NG tube inserted and tests run. Long story short, after all the tests came back negative and a week had past she was discharged having gained 165g in a week.

Since that first, fateful paediatric appointment five weeks ago Miss Erin has gained 640g and 3.5cm in height.